Make art that sells: Final Thoughts (Very Sarie)

I still haven't shared my work for the fifth and final week of MATS, so here it is. We were designing artwork based on our own collections. I actually realised I have a lot of different little mini collections. I like to think of them more as things I gravitate towards from a home interior perspective. I drew up several different things, but in the end went a more natural route. Nature is something I am continually inspired by- and I do pick up little things on walks and trips and sprinkle them through my home. In a lot of ways, even though this class pushed me to create things outside of florals, etc., it also solidified for me that I'm really happy when I'm observing nature and translating it back into the world in my own unique way. For this project, that translated into using plant and animal life from under the sea. I loved experimenting with the different shapes and love that the design came out as a sort of floral, but in a much, much more interesting way!

I loved the motifs and colors so much that I wanted to create a pattern collection based on them as well. So then, "Sea Carnival" was born:

The biggest thing I want to touch on though today, is not the inspiration and encouragement from Lilla during the course, or even the artwork created for the course which challenged and surprised me, but the community that occurs as a result of the course.

Deciding to make art to sell for licensing is no joke. I am hopeful that I can make a rewarding career/lifestyle from doing this because I love it. Like, to the core of my bones love it. But it's filled with all sorts of questions and uncertainties- especially at the beginning. This course has put me in touch with the most amazing group of artists- from every single walk of life and every single type of media and it's unquantifiable. They are there to encourage, support, offer suggestions on artwork or just have a bit of a laugh on a long day. To be in touch with other artists all over the world with just a few clicks of the keyboard- how cool is that?!

So with that, some of the other lovely artists and myself have put together a little blog tour to share a little of all of this amazing talent. I'm going to feature today's other two artists, but be sure to check out the dates and sites below so that you can have a look at all of these talented peeps!

First up is Rachael Schafer. I just loved the line quality and whimsy of all of these little cages: